There are many fishermen who fish from various kinds of boats, including canoes, john boats, and the like. With these boats, typically the fisherman will sit down in the boat, at or about water level, and cast his line or otherwise fish as is well-known in the art. For most kinds of fishing, it is much more desirable to sit in an elevated chair above the water to fish. This is desirable not only for comfort and safety, but also helps the fisherman look down into the water to spot fish as well as retrieve fish when caught. All in all, fishing from an elevated chair makes fishing much more pleasurable.
As is well-known to most fisherman, there are boats presently available, such as bass boats, which have elevated fishing chairs and decks for mounting electric trolling motors at the front of the boat to provide noiseless final positioning and trolling of the boat as the fisherman fishes. However, these bass boats can be quite expensive and, if purchased, obsolete a fisherman's first boat which may be a canoe, john boat or the like. Furthermore, the inventor is not aware of any fishing boats which have a fishing deck mounted to or built in behind the normal transom or outboard motor. One reason for this may be the problem with possible interference between the fishing deck and the outboard motor or propeller typically mounted to or extending rearward from the aft end of the boat.
In order to solve these and other problems in the prior art, and in order to provide a kit for converting a single hull or two single hull boats into a fishing boat having one or two fishing decks with elevated chairs, or for adding a second fishing deck to the back end of a boat, the inventor has succeeded in designing and developing a fishing deck and mount which accommodates the use of an outboard motor which is centrally located and which has the equivalent of a power trim mechanism. The inventor's rear fishing deck and/or power trim mechanism may also be conveniently incorporated into a new fishing boat at the time of its manufacture, and thus should not be merely thought of as an add-on kit. In essence, the inventor's device includes a platform-like fishing deck which may be mounted in a variety of ways to span a pair of canoes or other pontoon members across either their fore or aft end. A common decking may then be applied across the upper edges of the canoes to form a floor for the resultant boat, and a central cavity placed amidships accommodates the outboard motor typically used by these boat owners. The central cavity includes an angled transom with a hinged mount along with a hydraulic cylinder and a pair of limit switches which may be connected in series and operated with controls mounted on a control panel for selectively raising and lowering the outboard motor, as desired. This feature not only makes it possible for a fishing deck to be added to the aft end of a boat, but also eliminates the need for a separate power trim mechanism on the motor itself. The hinged transom, hinged at either the top or bottom thereof, facilitates the positioning of the rear deck and reduces the expense of a manufactured outboard motor by eliminating the need for the raise and lower mechanism normally built into outboard motors. As an alternative to the inventor's power trim, a manual or hydraulically operated lift may be used.
In a second embodiment, the fishing deck of the present invention may be conveniently mounted at the fore and aft ends of a john boat or other single-hulled boat, with a central cavity formed in the fishing deck at the aft end of the boat for mounting of the outboard motor. Thus, in this embodiment, the aft fishing deck surrounds the outboard motor. Alternately, for inboard motor boats, no central cavity need be provided and the aft deck kit need only match the boat's hull contour. As with the first embodiment, the power trim arrangement may also be provided for ease in operation of the outboard motor.
While the principal advantages and features of the present invention have been briefly described above, a greater understanding of the novel and unique features of the invention may be attained by referring to the drawings and detailed description of the preferred embodiment which follow .